Following the repeal of the Offensive Behaviour of Football Act and an apparent rise in sectarianism, the Scottish Parliament needs to take action, writes Kenny MacAskill.

An old maxim is “legislate in haste and repent at leisure”. For sure, the Offensive Behaviour at Football Act was troubled from the outset but the inverse of the maxim now applies.

After the opposition parties in the Scottish Parliament flexed their political muscle against the new minority SNP administration, it’s now “repeal in haste and repent at leisure”.

Back then, opposition speakers berated an infringement of the civil liberties of football fans. Not just unfair and unjust but an attack upon working-class youth were the arguments put forward as a reason for repeal. Football exceptionalism was decried and, they decided, the solution should be found in wider society.

Now sectarianism is back at football and with a vengeance. Anecdotally, it seems worse since the repeal which is probable as it empowered those most vociferous in denouncing it, yet often least active in condemning the manifestations the law was there to address.